Sriracha hot sauce supply in hot water after city’s lawsuit against factory

Jalapeno chilis are unloaded from a truck. All five of the sauces made by Huy Fong Foods are manufactured in Rosemead and in Irwindale. The company has begun to break away from being known as a sauce for only Asian food and now is being known as a hot sauce for all cultures. Some uses for the sauce include topping pizzas, marinating meat, adding heat to chilies and soups, and spicing up salsas. The chili sauces are made from fresh, red Jalapeno chili peppers and contain no water or artificial colors — which results in sauces that are flavorful and hot. (Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News)

IRWINDALE >> A heated battle over Sriracha hot chili sauce could cause the price of the popular condiment to rise if the city gets an injunction, according to the manufacturer.

Nonetheless talks between Huy Fong Foods, the maker of Sriracha, and city of Irwindale continued late Tuesday as city officials demanded the company curb smells coming from the Azusa Canyon Road factory or cease operations.

If production is halted on the chili sauce because of a court order, the price of Sriracha will likely go up, Adam Holliday, Huy Fong’s director of operations said.

The city of Irwindale asked a Superior Court judge Monday to halt operations at the plant after the city received numerous complaints of “strong, offensive chili odors” coming from the 650,000-square-foot facility.

“We have been in communication with Huy Fong’s legal counsel, but the city will likely proceed with the restraining order on Thursday unless we are informed that the odor problem has been corrected,” said City Attorney Fred Galante.

The public nuisance complaint filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court demands the company halt operations until it no longer produces the smell. The city said residents have complained of headaches and irritation to their eyes and throats, according to the lawsuit.

Holliday said the city’s legal action came as a surprise, especially since the company had already been working to address the issue.

“To us, it was out of the blue, it was very shocking,” Holliday said. “We were welcomed with open arms to Irwindale and we felt very welcome, and somewhere around there it just went south.”

He said the company has already installed active carbon filters to eliminate odors, and continues to seek other solutions.

“The timeline we were given, it was almost like we were set up to fail,” Holliday said. “We hear the residents. We are not turning our back on anyone at all.”

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An inspector from the South Coast Air Quality Management District did not smell a foul odor and did not find any compliance violations last week when visiting the neighborhood and inspecting the factory, according to spokesman Sam Atwood.

The AQMD received 11 complaints from residents about foul odors emanating from the Huy Fong Foods factory beginning on Oct. 21, Atwood said.

The chili harvest season begins at the end of August and lasts about 12 weeks.

Holliday said Huy Fong requested AQMD inspect the plant after the city informed them of the complaints.

Inspectors visited the neighborhood on Oct. 22 and Oct. 24, but detected no odors, Atwood said.

But, “at this point, we can’t say they are operating in full compliance. We are investigating,” Atwood said.

Resident Dena Zepeda, who lives on Fraijo Avenue, said more than 50 residents signed a petition about the strong smells.

She said the smell is so strong that children who have asthma aren’t able to play outside.

“It gets to their throat,” she said, which causes hacking. “It lingers there, you can taste it.”

Resident Art Tapia told the City Council last week he had to move a party at his house on Central Street indoors due to the smell. “It gags you,” he said of the odor, according to meeting minutes.

Zepeda said her lymph nodes have been swollen for several weeks, a problem that occurred around the same time last year, when the plant began operations. She is receiving medical treatment.

“It has to be the chili because it only happens at this time when they’re busiest,” she said.

Zepeda said the smell is strongest on sunny days beginning in the afternoon and lingers into the evenings.

“I don’t want them shut down because it’s jobs for everybody, but I do want the air quality taken care of on my behalf and the kids’ behalf and the seniors’ behalf,” she said.

“I love that chili, I tried it,” she said. “It’s not like I have a problem with it.”

The hot chili sauce with the green lid and a roster on its bottle is hugely popular. The company sold 20 million bottles last year, according to Businessweek.

The sauce is sold in every U.S. state and every continent across the globe.

The company also operates out of a factory in Rosemead, where it has been for more than 30 years. Rosemead City Manager Jeff Allred said Tuesday that the city had never received complaints from residents.

This year, truckloads of chilies began arriving at the factory in September, and the harvest will end in a couple of weeks, said Donna Lam, executive operations officer.

About 30 trucks, each carrying 21 tons of chilies grown in Ventura, arrive at the factory each day and dump their chili load into a hopper that Huy Fong founder David Tran designed himself. From there, the chilies are transferred inside the factory, where they are crushed and mixed with vinegar and garlic to make “chili mash.” The mash is stored in large blue barrels, which are made on site, in the warehouse and made into Sriracha sauce or the company’s two other sauces, throughout the rest of the year.

Complaints to Irwindale officials about the smells began last year, when the factory was operating at about 10 percent capacity, Galante said.

Huy Fong officials were at first cooperative with the city, but then denied an odor problem existed, according to the lawsuit.

“If we could have some confirmation that the odors are addressed on the short-term basis and they have a plan to address the long-term problems, we certainly wouldn’t want to proceed any further,” said Galante.

Holliday said the company is committed to solving the problem.

“We have this huge brand new facility, and we are going to stay here,” he said.